Something in the air at Lubbock

I don't know what it was about the air, but there were people coughing all throughout the meet. After we finished running the 1500m, my lungs were on fire and I didn't stop coughing the rest of the night. Jose and Hibbitts had the same reaction. I would say it was a somewhat successful day, with some doing better than others. The wind was kicking up when the track meet started, but calmed down towards the evening time.

The 1500m had an extremely talented field of 2 or 3 guys who had broken 4:00 in the mile. Jose hit a PR for the season of 4:16.08 and I wasn't far behind at 4:24.13.

New freshman transfer Aaron Hibbitts made his debut at 3000 steeplechase. When this kid gets in shape, he could do some damage.

Pijo had a great night with a PR of 16:03.84 in an extremely fast 5000m.

We are going to spend the next week and a half training hard and then taper before we hit our last meet of this season at OBU May 2nd and 3rd.

Texas Tech Results
3000m Steeple
12. Aaron Hibbitts 11:13.55
1500m
17. Jose Huerta 4:16.08
19. Darren Flowers 4:24.13
24. Isai Saucedo 4:34.49
5000m
12. Jose Velazquez 16:03.84
19. Thomas Harris 17.22.66
20. Erik Huerta 17:29.05

Running and Training in Canyon, TX

Being hired to coach at West Texas A&M has been a great experience this year. Canyon has proven to be a great spot to train and the runners that I have worked with have shown great interest and enthusiasm for their sport. We basically started from scratch this year with a new staff and a new squad on the men's side. We only had four runners during the fall which made it impossible to score in any cross country meets. We will not declare track and field as an official sport until next year so we can only compete as an off-season activity during the spring. Things are looking up for next season though. We have a really great group of kids coming in next year (some still yet to be determined). The current runners' mileage is anywhere from 50-80 miles a week, we are hitting the track anywhere from 2 to 3 times a week, and usually lifting 2 times a week. We only have 4 more weeks remaining in our off-season so we are cutting back on volume some and running fast. I am anxious to see how everyone runs at Texas Tech next week. If everyone stays healthy, I see no reason why we can't continue to improve. We will run out at Palo Duro Canyon this Sunday anywhere from 14-16 miles...hopefully I can get some video of what it is like out there and post it next week.